Do Christians live differently from everyone else?

Do Christians live differently from everyone else? Ideally they should. Very often, they live like everyone else. But we don’t just live by the principles of
this world, we live by the words Jesus has given us. And Jesus challenges us to live differently. He asks us to be challenged to desire more of this life, to desire more of who we can be, to desire more of our relationships. So yes, ideally, Christians live differently,
but they struggle in their efforts to do so. Christians live in the world with everyone else, so of course they’re going to take up some customs and the things they encounter in the world, but ideally Christians do live differently. And one of the things that struck people about the first Christians is exactly that they were different: that they cared for their poor, that they had love for each other, that they had love for those people that were marginalised; slaves and strangers. So Christians had an appeal because they lived differently. And Jesus challenges us with his words in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) to be different. So if someone strikes you, the natural response is to strike back. But we’re called to be different. If someone strikes you on the left cheek,
turn the other. If someone orders you to walk a mile with
him, go two. So Jesus tells us: be different! Because he desires for us to be more, to expect more of this life, to expect more of who we can be, to expect more of our relationships. So yes, Christians should live differently, and of course we struggle with that. We always stumble and fall, and we have to get up again. But in the end, Jesus encourages us that with the help of his Holy Spirit we can indeed live differently: more loving, more caring, more patient, and more overall desiring of heaven, of God, of love.